Helping employees stay at work

Employer family assistance programs can help combat rise of disability claims

By Christopher Carson

11/27/2017|Canadian HR Reporter|Last Updated: 11/27/2017

With many Canadians experiencing mental health or addiction-related illnesses, and many unable to work as a result, employers are faced with the challenge of costly disability claims.

But integrating an employer family assistance program (EFAP) with workplace-based collaborative mental health care can successfully help workers return to work 16 days sooner than usual care over a 12-month period, and reduce the proportion of workers transitioning to long-term disability over the same period by over three-quarters, according to a 2017 study by K. Cullen et al in the Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation.